Drive better work (and win more business) with strategic insights
The best campaigns and the biggest account wins often are driven by the best strategic insights. This is a simple truth we see day in and day out in our work with agencies and clients. Unfortunately, compelling insights are rare these days, and many agency and client teams are ill-prepared to develop the insights that […]
How to Ask for the Client’s Business
From Build a Better Agency. With Steve Boehler and Lindsay O’Neil. This episode will give you the inside look at how agencies present themselves (accidentally and on purpose) and the influence each nuance has on our prospects as they weigh one agency against the others. Listen
How agencies and clients can make the most of agency references
An agency’s references are an important and often underappreciated aspect of an agency review. This would seem obvious! Unfortunately, for many agencies and some clients, it is not. Some clients don’t check agency references when they run their own reviews, and some agencies do a poor job of selecting or prepping their references. And some […]
How Small Agencies Can Win Big Clients
From “Question Everything.” With guests Robin & Steve Boehler. Consider this your all-access pass to advertising’s top agency/client matchmakers. We’re chatting with power couple Robin and Steve Boehler of Mercer Island Group, the West Coast’s top consultancy firm helping both brands and agencies solve critical business and organizational challenges. Listen
Ad Age 2024 Small Agency of the Year: Agencies should apply! The industry is watching!
There is a special place in our heart for small independent agencies that are living by their wits and putting their heart, sweat and tears to work for their clients. And that love for small agencies makes this a special time of year! Applications for this year’s annual Ad Age Small Agency of the Year […]
A Valentine for Marketers & their Agencies
At Mercer Island Group, we LOVE marketers. We LOVE agencies. And we LOVE to help them succeed. The marketing and advertising world is a tough, tough business. We are lucky to be able to serve marketers and agencies and we are incredibly thankful to the people, their brands and agencies. With so much gratitude in […]
The crucial role of dialogue and creative listening to achieving great strategy
Great strategy is hard to come by and hard to create. When things go well, it can be magic. It can be the foundation that campaigns like “The World’s Most Interesting Man” and “Snickers Satisfies” are built upon. When things go wrong, the “work”, the people and the business suffer. What’s the special alchemy that […]
Meeting with a prospect? The magic way for agencies to start a meeting.
We talk with agencies every day. Since we manage so many agency reviews on behalf of clients, agencies often want to talk and present us with their capabilities. They want to be sure they are on our radar. It makes sense. And we appreciate it. It’s part of our job! To best represent our clients […]
Agencies: Please don’t lead with your tools
We review numerous agency presentations annually, and we consider it a great privilege to witness the expertise of talented individuals discussing the clients we hold dear. There are, however, occasional missteps that hinder the potential bond between the agency and the prospective client. One prevalent issue is when agencies devote an excessive amount of pitch […]
Making magic from data with Grace Kite
By Steve Boehler with special guest Dr. Grace Kite How can marketers and their agencies use data to better serve their businesses? One key foundation of successful modern marketing is a deep knowledge of data and how to make data science better serve our understanding of customers, competitors and markets. Yet few marketers are well […]